I have been an online instructor for about a year, and this is my first online teaching experience. I had a hybrid experience when I was in my master's degree program where we went to an on-ground class the first and sixth weeks, with all other weeks happening asynchronously online. Since we had the on-ground classes, the online courses had very little engagement and were more of a self study experience. I was therefore surprised at how much my former customer service experience had prepared me for the online teaching I do! Engagement is literally EVERYTHING in the online experience, particularly if you are teaching a segment of the population that may not know achievement first hand. With this realization came the application of my customer service training: get ahead in the communication game, try to answer questions up front that may come from the course set-up materials, and make sure that everyone knows what their role in the successful completion of the course. Above all of this, of course, is listening to the student when they do reach out to you, and try to understand things from their point of view. What do they really want from this course? Are they getting it? Managing expectations is what I did in my years in medical customer service, and continues to be a big part of my teaching job. I am thankful for this serendipity!